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Snag #1: Wages & Housing Prices

Wages haven’t kept pace with housing prices
nationally since the 1970s. In Minnesota,
between 2000 and 2015, the median renter's
wage decreased by 11 percent while the gross rent
went up by 9 percent.

According to Fatima Moore,
director of public policy for the
Minnesota Coalition for the Homeless,
“The local housing climate is bleak.
Minnesotans are feeling the stress of
our strained housing market. If we do
not make strategic investments along
the housing continuum, more families
will continue to be cost-burdened, and
unable to secure financial stability for
the foreseeable future. When people
have safe and affordable places to live, they tend to spend more of their personal income on healthcare, education, and their family’s needs. Therefore, communities do better due to the increase in finances and social capital."

Moore notes that, since the 1940s, race and class
have played an important role in housing policies.
Neighborhoods have been redlined — refused loans
because they live in a high financial risk area. “Property
values have decreased, and communities with large
populations of residents of color have been under-
resourced,” she says. “Additionally, families are currently
spending [a larger percentage of income] on housing than they have in the past and are cost-burdened due to the lack of available affordable rents.”

We know where we live impacts
everything. Children learn, workers earn,
seniors thrive, and communities prosper.
Yet today, entire families have been
displaced. Kids are unable to focus in
school because of housing insecurities.
Jobs are lost. Health care goes unattended.

Moore sees a three-pronged solution – view housing as
an integral part of achieving and maintaining stability for
Minnesotans by: